When he finally let her breathe, it wasn’t to pull back. Michael nibbled a path across her cheek until he reached her ear. He grazed the lobe with his tongue and let his exhale go straight into the canal.
Alyssa shook beneath him, the faintest of sounds slipping out of her mouth.
Backtracking the same path, he kissed his way across her face to torture the other ear in the same fashion. His sexy mate tipped her head and arched her neck to give him better access. She most likely didn’t realize her actions, and he wasn’t about to tell her. He just took advantage and continued across her neck until he reached her shoulder.
Michael had a death grip on the comforter beside her head, hoping if he held the blanket tight enough he could keep a check on himself and not reach forward to grasp her breast.
Desperate for more, the new moan in the room was Michael’s.
The sound must have brought Alyssa halfway back to the real world. “God, Michael.” Her words were barely a mumble. Her fingers dug into his arm, her nails nearly breaking the skin. Too bad he’d not worn long sleeves today. The T-shirt he had on did nothing to protect him from the crescent moon shapes she was branding into his skin.
The woman had no idea, and Michael would gladly let her brand his entire body with her nails if it meant having her hands on him.
“What the hell is happening to me?” Alyssa’s words spilled out on a long exhale.
“We’re mates, baby. This is our bodies’ response to that call.”
“I’m not even in control of my senses.” She pushed him off her with her clinging hand and looked him in the eye.
“I hope not.” He smiled. “If you were, I’d be concerned.”
“Is it always like this?”
“Do you mean is sex always like this? No. Between mates, yes. But it’s my understanding it’s worse in the beginning. After a few weeks it will calm down a bit. The frenzy that is. The need to be inside each other day and night.”
Alyssa gasped again. He knew he’d said a lot, shocked her, but she needed to know. This is what it was going to be like.
“I’m torn.” She bit her lip, and Michael had to close his eyes at the onslaught of emotions that flared inside him. Why did women do that?
“About what?” he muttered, resuming his nibbling back up her neck toward her mouth.
“I’m not ready to let you claim me. I need more time. But you are making my body boil and squirm with an awareness I’ve never experienced.”
Michael set his forehead against hers and smiled. “Thank God. I’d be worried if it were any other way.”
“All my brain cells seem to have fled, and all my blood has headed … south.”
She was so fucking sweet when she avoided crude words. He couldn’t help but tease her. “Your pussy is hot and wet and needy?”
Alyssa gasped, but when she lifted her torso subtly against his knee, he knew he’d caused the reaction.
“Yes.” The word hissed out of her mouth and surprised him. How bold his little mate was getting.
“Want me to fix that for you?”
“What? How? Now?” She stiffened, her eyes wide. “I’m not ready.” She shook her head back and forth.
“I’m not suggesting anything other than you letting me relieve the pressure you’re experiencing … here.” He cautiously set his palm against her sex and pressed into her clit.
Alyssa’s eyes rolled back into her head, and she moaned louder than she had before. A truly distinct sound of abandon.
“I promise to keep my pants on. Just let me make you feel good, babe.” Michael rubbed his palm in tiny circles against her jeans until she couldn’t keep from lifting into his pressure.
She was so fucking sexy, even fully clothed, and in that moment, he knew he’d never get enough of her as long as he lived. Fuck the theory that in a few weeks the frenzy would lesson. There was no way he would ever look at his mate from across a room and not want to tear her clothes off and fuck her against the wall.
When he took her mouth again in a long drawn-out kiss, Alyssa melted beneath him. Her fingers relaxed their grip on his arm, and she even let them wander to his chest. On a gasp against his mouth, she surprised him. “Take your shirt off.” Her gaze locked on his.
Certainly.
In two seconds he’d whipped the tight cotton over his head, straddled her legs with his own, and hovered over her trapped body, letting her gaze wander over his chest.
With the barest hint of contact, Alyssa reached with both hands and explored his pecs, his abs, and then his nipples. “Do you like that?” The tips grew hard under her touch, and he flinched.
“Love it, baby. You don’t have to ask. Everywhere you touch me makes me hot. Horny.”